By Zik Zulu Okafor

Nearly every line in this trending piece without a title sounds ludicrous, truly beyond sycophancy. It was a masterclass in what not to do. Indeed, tone deaf. It wasn’t just a bad PR job. Succinctly put, rather than throw more light and shape perception about Dangote and his refinery’s capacity, capability, and legitimate ambition, Dan Kunle surrendered the narrative to mockery.

His piece, with childlike inuendos, simply showcased a nation in peril and the insidious creep of oil monopoly that assaults our sovereignty. At the heart of this tempest is a dangerous attempt to enthrone a single, private entity, Dangote Refinery, as the omnipotent monarch of Nigeria’s oil and gas value chain.

Let us be unequivocal: no democracy, especially one as resource-rich and diverse as Nigeria, can afford to hand its petroleum soul to one man no matter how seraphic his character and how pious his praises.
Dan Kunle’s article or commentary without a title is not just an expression of opinion. It is an audacious manifesto for oil and gas monopoly, an open call for the dismantling of national assets and the enthronement of private absolutism. It seeks to liquidate NNPC Limited’s refineries, dismantle national distribution infrastructure, and canonize the Dangote Refinery as the new custodian of Nigeria’s downstream destiny .This is not only sheer derision and sneering of both technocracy and beauraucracy. It assaults even corporate governance and intellective hypotheses.

By every letter and spirit of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, 2021, this is a dangerous breach.
Section 16 of the PIA clearly outlines the objectives of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA and it is to promote effective and sustainable development of the midstream and downstream sectors, ensuring fair competition and preventing abuse of market dominance.

To call for the liquidation of government infrastructure and the replacement of national regulatory frameworks with private monopolistic control is to spit on the very fabric of that law.

Such a move would contravene Section 92 of the PIA, which prohibits anti-competitive behavior, collusion, and market dominance that undermines national economic interest. No sector of Nigeria’s economy is more sensitive than petroleum. It is not merely a commodity. It is our sovereignty in liquid form.

Monopoly, as history teaches us, always wears the saavy mask of efficiency at first. It seduces governments with the promise of stability, investors with profits, and citizens with convenience. But the cost is always the same : loss of control, erosion of competition, and the hollowing out of national capacity, thus stripping the nation of its essential strength, value and substance, leaving it acutely empty.

But, let us even look at other climes. In Norway, the state-owned Equinor works alongside private firms, but the government retains firm regulatory control, with clear separation of powers and market rules. In Brazil, Petrobras , despite privatization , drives and still operates under strict public oversight. Even in the U.S., the most capitalist of nations, antitrust laws protect against monopolies in energy.

Why then should Nigeria descend into feudalism under the guise of reform?
Dangote is a national asset, no question. But he must not become a national threat. No individual, no conglomerate, must be allowed to control crude sourcing, refining, storage, distribution, and retailing. That is not integration. It is usurpation, pure and simple.

This government must not be swayed by flattery or the siren song of efficiency.To liquidate NNPC refineries without reviving or privatizing them through transparent processes is economic sabotage.
Let the Federal Government of Nigeria be warned : the architecture of national energy security must never be handed to the oligarchic ambitions of any man or entity, no matter how patriotic their branding.
We must rise, not in silence but in the loud and lawful defense of our constitutional economic rights.

Nigeria is not for sale. Not now. Not ever !

Zik Zulu Okafor, MD/CEO, Energy and Business Media Ltd , wrote in from Lagos.